Great album. Especially I like intro "The Contract/The Crypts of Hades" and 3 other great composition: speed and powerful Masquerade, classic RW "Lions of The Sea" and completely underestimated "Rebel at Heart", which is kind of metal hymn (but not as slow as Chains and Leather or Prisoners...). In overall this album is a bit more hard and speed than others "pirate era" and thus more similar to Under Jolly Roger than the rest. As my friend said about "Masquerade: " Hoist the flag and get speed".
PS. On my original Masquerade CD there are no bonuses "Iron Heads and Bones to Ashes"... Strange and very sad

Written by Pelcu on 18.01.2013 at 13:03

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PS. On my original Masquerade CD there are no bonuses "Iron Heads and Bones to Ashes"... Strange and very sad

I got the remaster and these songs are fairly interesting since they're probably the oldest songs I've heard by the band recorded before the debut album I could imagine. Not essential songs though, as in not as good as the songs on the debut album.

Written by Pelcu on 18.01.2013 at 13:03

Great album. Especially I like intro "The Contract/The Crypts of Hades" and 3 other great composition: speed and powerful Masquerade, classic RW "Lions of The Sea" and completely underestimated "Rebel at Heart", which is kind of metal hymn (but not as slow as Chains and Leather or Prisoners...). In overall this album is a bit more hard and speed than others "pirate era" and thus more similar to Under Jolly Roger than the rest. As my friend said about "Masquerade: " Hoist the flag and get speed".

I agree that those three are the most important songs of the album. Though I'd also give recognition to "Underworld", "Men In Black" and "Wheel Of Doom" as these songs represent the better song writing of Running Wild ? similar to most of the songs on "The Rivalry". Great riffs, Jörg on drums; this is what some of the later RW albums could've used instead of the fake drums, great songwriting on most songs. All in all a GREAT album, but not quite one of my favorites by RW.

A good Running Wild chapter. It's probably not one of their best but is kept afloat by some pearls as "Rebel at heart" (totally underrated!), "Masquerade" and "Men in black". This album shows still a good old Running Wild sound.

Album as Album but somehow band has lost inspiration, same I wrote about previuse one is here, even not stronger equal lack of inspiration level.

I like it. Too bad most songs here sounds the same. Masquerade is great speed metal, Lions Of The Sea and Underworld showcases the more epic side of Running Wild. The rest is alright.

A little repetitive album, but with some stand-out songs too, like the title track, "Underworld", "Rebel At Heart", "Black Soul" and especially awesome "Lions Of The Sea"! 7.5/10